Graphene heat dissipators in portable electronic devices

ABSTRACT

The disclosed embodiments relate to techniques for facilitating thermal transfer in a portable electronic device. The portable electronic device includes a battery pack, which further includes a battery cell. The battery pack may supply power to a set of components in the portable electronic device. The portable electronic device also includes a heat dissipator composed of graphene. The heat dissipator may be in thermal contact with one or more of the components. The heat dissipator may also be disposed over a surface of the battery pack.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

The present embodiments relate to heat dissipation in portableelectronic devices. More specifically, the present embodiments relate tothe use of graphene in heat dissipators for portable electronic devices.

2. Related Art

A modern portable electronic device typically contains a set of tightlypacked components. For example, a mobile phone may include a microphone,display, speakers, camera, buttons, battery, processor, memory, internalstorage, and/or ports in a package that is less than 0.5 inches thick,4-5 inches long, and 2-3 inches wide. Moreover, most components in theportable electronic device generate heat, which must be dissipated toenable safe use of the portable electronic device and improve long-termreliability. For example, heat generated by components in a mobile phonemay be spread across the enclosure of the mobile phone to prevent damageto the components and increase user comfort and safety while operatingthe mobile phone.

However, heat-dissipation mechanisms for portable electronic devicesgenerally involve the use of additional parts and/or materials. Forexample, heat sinks, cooling fans, heat pipes, thermal spreaders, and/orvents may be used to dissipate heat from components in a laptopcomputer. Such heat-dissipating parts and/or materials may take up spacewithin the portable electronic devices and may add to the cost of theportable electronic devices.

Hence, space-efficient designs for portable electronic devices may befacilitated by mechanisms that reduce the dependence of the portableelectronic devices on conventional heat-dissipating parts and/ormaterials.

SUMMARY

The disclosed embodiments relate to techniques for facilitating thermaltransfer in a portable electronic device. The portable electronic deviceincludes a battery pack, which further includes a battery cell. Thebattery pack may supply power to a set of components in the portableelectronic device. The portable electronic device also includes a heatdissipator composed of graphene. The heat dissipator may be in thermalcontact with one or more of the components. The heat dissipator may alsobe disposed over a surface of the battery pack.

In some embodiments, the set of components includes at least one of aprocessor, a power supply unit (PSU), a backlight, a charging circuit, aprinted circuit board (PCB), a hard disk drive (HDD), and a radiotransceiver.

In some embodiments, the battery cell corresponds to a lithium-ionand/or lithium-polymer battery cell that contains a set of layers,including a cathode with an active coating, a separator, and an anodewith an active coating. The battery cell also includes a pouch enclosingthe layers, wherein the pouch is flexible. The layers may be wound tocreate a jelly roll prior to sealing the layers in the flexible pouch.

In some embodiments, the pouch includes a layer of aluminum and a layerof polypropylene. The heat dissipator may be disposed over the layer ofpropylene.

In some embodiments, the battery cell corresponds to a solid-statebattery cell that includes a cathode current collector, a cathode activematerial, a solid electrolyte, an anode active material, and an anodecurrent collector. The solid electrolyte may include lithium phosphorusoxynitride (LiPON).

In some embodiments, the heat dissipator is configured to transfer heatfrom the components to the solid-state battery cell. The transferredheat may increase the temperature of the solid-state battery cell andimprove the runtime of the solid-state battery cell.

In some embodiments, the thermal contact between the heat dissipator andthe one or more of the components is provided by further disposing theheat dissipator over a surface of one or more of the components.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 shows the arrangement of components within a portable electronicdevice in accordance with the disclosed embodiments.

FIG. 2 shows a cross-sectional view of a portable electronic device inaccordance with the disclosed embodiments.

FIG. 3 shows a flowchart illustrating the process of facilitating theuse of a portable electronic device in accordance with the disclosedembodiments.

FIG. 4 shows a portable electronic device in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments.

In the figures, like reference numerals refer to the same figureelements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description is presented to enable any person skilled inthe art to make and use the embodiments, and is provided in the contextof a particular application and its requirements. Various modificationsto the disclosed embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilledin the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied toother embodiments and applications without departing from the spirit andscope of the present disclosure. Thus, the present invention is notlimited to the embodiments shown, but is to be accorded the widest scopeconsistent with the principles and features disclosed herein.

The data structures and code described in this detailed description aretypically stored on a computer-readable storage medium, which may be anydevice or medium that can store code and/or data for use by a computersystem. The computer-readable storage medium includes, but is notlimited to, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, magnetic and opticalstorage devices such as disk drives, magnetic tape, CDs (compact discs),DVDs (digital versatile discs or digital video discs), or other mediacapable of storing code and/or data now known or later developed.

The methods and processes described in the detailed description sectioncan be embodied as code and/or data, which can be stored in acomputer-readable storage medium as described above. When a computersystem reads and executes the code and/or data stored on thecomputer-readable storage medium, the computer system performs themethods and processes embodied as data structures and code and storedwithin the computer-readable storage medium.

Furthermore, methods and processes described herein can be included inhardware modules or apparatus. These modules or apparatus may include,but are not limited to, an application-specific integrated circuit(ASIC) chip, a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a dedicated orshared processor that executes a particular software module or a pieceof code at a particular time, and/or other programmable-logic devicesnow known or later developed. When the hardware modules or apparatus areactivated, they perform the methods and processes included within them.

FIG. 1 shows the arrangement of components within a portable electronicdevice 102 in accordance with an embodiment. Portable electronic device102 may correspond to a laptop computer, tablet computer, personaldigital assistant (PDA), portable media player, mobile phone, digitalcamera, and/or other type of battery-powered electronic device. As shownin FIG. 1, a battery 104 and a printed circuit board (PCB) 106 arearranged within portable electronic device 102. Battery 104 may beplaced side-by-side with PCB 106 within the enclosure for portableelectronic device 102. In addition, the relatively large size of battery104 may cause battery 104 to occupy a significant portion of spacewithin portable electronic device 102.

Battery 104 may supply power to PCB 106 and/or other components ofportable electronic device 102. In particular, battery 104 maycorrespond to a lithium-polymer battery that includes one or morebattery cells. Each battery cell may contain a number of layers,including a cathode with an active coating, a separator, and an anodewith an active coating. The cathode, anode, and separator layers may bewound on a mandrel to form a spirally wound structure (e.g., jellyroll). The layers may also be enclosed in a flexible pouch made of alayer of aluminum and a layer of polypropylene. Conductive tabs thatextend through seals in the pouch may then be used to electricallycouple the battery cell with one or more other battery cells to form abattery pack. For example, the battery pack may be formed by couplingthe battery cells in a series, parallel, or series-and-parallelconfiguration.

Alternatively, battery 104 may correspond to a solid-state battery thatis formed by layering a cathode current collector, a cathode activematerial, a solid electrolyte, an anode active material, and an anodecurrent collector on top of a non-conducting substrate. For example, avacuum deposition technique may be used to deposit the cathode currentcollector as a layer of platinum and/or gold onto the substrate and theanode current collector as a layer of copper onto the substrate. Next, asputtering technique may be used to deposit a lithium compoundcorresponding to the cathode active material onto the cathode currentcollector, along with a thin film of lithium phosphorus oxynitride(LiPON) corresponding to the solid electrolyte over the cathode currentcollector, cathode active material, substrate, and/or anode currentcollector. A layer of lithium may then be thermally evaporated onto theLiPON to form the anode active material. Finally, the deposited layersmay be sealed in a protective package such as a polymer frame and/orflexible pouch.

PCB 106 may contain electronic components that are used to operateportable electronic device 102. For example, PCB 106 may be used toelectrically connect a processor 108, memory, hard disk drive (HDD),input/output (I/O) components, and/or ports on a portable media player.The electronic components may be powered by battery 104 and/or by anexternal power source (e.g., power adapter) during operation.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the operation of portableelectronic device 102 may generate heat with increased use of components(e.g., on PCB 106), resulting in an increase in the temperature(s) ofthe components. For example, processor-intensive operations on a laptopcomputer may cause the central processing unit (CPU) of the computer toheat up. Such localized heat buildup may cause discomfort and/or injuryto a user, and may further cause the components to lose reliability,behave unpredictably, and/or fail prematurely.

As a result, portable electronic device 102 may include mechanisms fordissipating heat from the components. For example, a layer of graphitethermal spreader material may be positioned over the surface of battery104 and placed in thermal contact with PCB 106 to allow heat generatedby components on PCB 106 to spread to battery 104, the enclosure ofportable electronic device 102, and/or other areas of portableelectronic device 102. In other words, the thermal spreader material mayfacilitate thermal transfer within portable electronic device 102.

However, heat-dissipation materials may take up space within portableelectronic device 102 and may increase the material and assembly costsfor portable electronic device 102. For example, a thermal spreadercomposed of a 30-micron layer of graphite film may occupy space that mayotherwise be used by battery 104, PCB 106, and/or other components inportable electronic device 102.

In one or more embodiments, thermal transfer in portable electronicdevice 102 is facilitated by replacing conventional thermal spreaders inportable electronic device 102 with a heat dissipator composed ofgraphene. The heat dissipator may be disposed over a surface of battery104 and placed in thermal contact with PCB 106 and/or other components.As discussed in further detail below with respect to FIG. 2, the highthermal conductivity and/or tensile strength of graphene may allow theheat dissipator to conduct heat away from the components moreeffectively than other heat spreader materials while occupying afraction of the space of the other heat spreader materials.

FIG. 2 shows a cross-sectional view of a portable electronic device(e.g., portable electronic device 102 of FIG. 1) in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments. As shown in FIG. 2, the portable electronicdevice includes a battery pack 202 and a component 204. Battery pack 202and component 204 are disposed side-by-side within an enclosure of theportable electronic device.

A heat dissipator 206 is also disposed over the surface of battery pack202 and placed in thermal contact with component 204. For example, heatdissipator 206 may extend past the surface of battery pack 202 to covera surface of component 204. Heat dissipator 206 may thus transfer heatfrom component 204 to other areas of the portable electronic device. Forexample, heat dissipator 206 may transfer heat from component 204 tobattery pack 202 and/or the enclosure of the portable electronic deviceto facilitate the safe and/or reliable operation of component 204. Theheat transfer may additionally increase the temperature of battery pack202, which in turn may improve the runtime of a solid-state battery inbattery pack 202.

As mentioned above, heat dissipator 206 may be composed of graphene.Heat dissipator 206 may be disposed over a surface of battery pack 202and/or component 204 by pressing a monolayer of graphene onto thesurface of battery pack 202 and/or component 204. For example, thegraphene monolayer may be grown on a substrate and/or exfoliated fromgraphite. The graphene monolayer may then be disposed over a layer ofpolypropylene on a flexible pouch in battery pack 202. The graphenemonolayer may also be disposed over a surface of a PCB, processor, powersupply unit (PSU), backlight, charging circuit, HDD, and/or radiotransceiver corresponding to component 204.

The use of graphene in heat dissipator 206 may reduce the amount ofspace occupied by heat dissipator 206 while providing effectivedissipation of heat from component 204. First, the thermal conductivityof graphene near room temperature may range from (4.84±0.44)×10³ to(5.30±0.48)×10³ Wm⁻¹K⁻¹, which is in excess of the thermalconductivities of carbon nanotube and/or diamond. Consequently, heatdissipator 206 may transfer heat away from component 204 moreeffectively than materials such as graphite and copper, resulting inincreased reliability, user comfort, and safety during use of theportable electronic device.

Second, the high tensile strength of graphene may allow a graphenemonolayer less than one nanometer thick to be used as heat dissipator206. Heat dissipator 206 may thus provide significant space savings overother heat spreader materials, which may range in thickness from tens ofmicrons to a millimeter. The reduction in space occupied by heatdissipator 206 may additionally facilitate a decrease in the portableelectronic device's size and/or an increase in the portable electronicdevice's portability and/or physical attractiveness. Conversely, thespace savings may be used to increase the size and capacity of batterypack 202 and/or add other components to the portable electronic device.

FIG. 3 shows a flowchart illustrating the process of facilitating theuse of a portable electronic device in accordance with the disclosedembodiments. In one or more embodiments, one or more of the steps may beomitted, repeated, and/or performed in a different order. Accordingly,the specific arrangement of steps shown in FIG. 3 should not beconstrued as limiting the scope of the embodiments.

Initially, a set of components and a battery are arranged within anenclosure of the portable electronic device (operation 302). Thecomponents may include a processor, a PSU, a backlight, a chargingcircuit, a PCB, an HDD, and/or a radio transceiver.

The battery may correspond to a lithium-ion and/or lithium-polymerbattery that includes a set of layers (e.g., a cathode with an activecoating, a separator, and an anode with an active coating). The layersmay be wound to create a jelly roll and enclosed in a flexible pouch.The flexible pouch may include a layer of aluminum and a layer ofpropylene.

Alternatively, the battery may correspond to a solid-state battery witha cathode current collector, a cathode active material, a solidelectrolyte composed of LiPON, an anode active material, and an anodecurrent collector layered over a non-conducting substrate. The runtimeof the solid-state battery may increase as a function of temperature.

Next, a heat dissipator composed of graphene is disposed over a surfaceof the battery (operation 304). The graphene may be grown on a substrateand/or exfoliated from graphite. The graphene may then be pressed ontothe surface of the battery. For example, the graphene may be placed overthe layer of polypropylene on the flexible pouch for the lithium-ionand/or lithium-polymer battery.

Finally, thermal contact between one or more of the components and theheat dissipator is provided (operation 306). The thermal contact may beprovided by further disposing the heat dissipator over the surface ofthe component(s). For example, the heat dissipator may be extended pastthe battery onto the surface of a PCB that is placed side-by-side withthe battery. The heat dissipator may then transfer heat from thecomponents to the battery and/or other parts of the portable electronicdevice. In addition, the transferred heat may increase the temperatureof the solid-state battery, resulting in increased runtime of thesolid-state battery.

The above-described heat dissipator can generally be used in any type ofelectronic device. For example, FIG. 4 illustrates a portable electronicdevice 400 which includes a processor 402, a memory 404 and a display408, which are all powered by a battery 406. Portable electronic device400 may correspond to a laptop computer, mobile phone, PDA, tabletcomputer, portable media player, digital camera, and/or other type ofbattery-powered electronic device. Battery 406 may correspond to abattery pack that includes one or more battery cells. A heat dissipatorcomposed of graphene may be disposed over a surface of the battery packand placed in thermal contact with one or more of the components (e.g.,processor 402, memory 404, etc.) of portable electronic device 400. Theheat dissipator may transfer heat from the components to the battery 406and/or other areas of portable electronic device 400.

The foregoing descriptions of various embodiments have been presentedonly for purposes of illustration and description. They are not intendedto be exhaustive or to limit the present invention to the formsdisclosed. Accordingly, many modifications and variations will beapparent to practitioners skilled in the art. Additionally, the abovedisclosure is not intended to limit the present invention.

1-20. (canceled)
 21. A portable electronic device, comprising: a set ofcomponents powered by a battery pack; the battery pack comprising abattery cell; and a graphene layer coupled to the battery pack and oneor more of the components, wherein the battery pack and the one or moreof the components are positioned side by side on the graphene layer,wherein the graphene layer is configured to transfer heat from the oneor more components to the battery pack to increase the temperature ofbattery pack.
 22. The portable electronic device of claim 21, whereinthe set of components comprises at least one of a processor, a powersupply unit (PSU), a backlight, a charging circuit, a printed circuitboard (PCB), a hard disk drive (HDD), and a radio transceiver.
 23. Theportable electronic device of claim 21, wherein the battery cellcomprises: a set of layers comprising a cathode with an active coating,a separator, and an anode with an active coating; and a pouch enclosingthe layers, wherein the pouch is flexible.
 24. The portable electronicdevice of claim 23, wherein the pouch comprises: a layer of aluminum;and a layer of polypropylene.
 25. The portable electronic device ofclaim 24, wherein the graphene layer is disposed over the layer ofpolypropylene.
 26. The portable electronic device of claim 23, whereinthe layers are wound to create a jelly roll.
 27. The portable electronicdevice of claim 21, wherein the battery cell comprises: a cathodecurrent collector; a cathode active material; a solid electrolyte; ananode active material; and an anode current collector.
 28. The portableelectronic device of claim 27, wherein the solid electrolyte compriseslithium phosphorous oxynitride (LiPON).
 29. The portable electronicdevice of claim 21, wherein the thermal contact between the graphenelayer and the one or more of the components is provided by: furtherdisposing the graphene layer over a surface of one or more of thecomponents.
 30. A method for facilitating the use of a portableelectronic device, comprising: arranging a set of components and abattery within an enclosure of the portable electronic device; couplingthe battery to a graphene layer; and coupling one or more of thecomponents to the graphene layer, wherein the battery is positioned sideby side with the one or more of the components on the graphene layer;wherein the graphene layer is configured to transfer heat from the oneor more components to the battery to increase a temperature of battery.31. The method of claim 30, wherein the set of components comprises atleast one of a processor, a power supply unit (PSU), a backlight, acharging circuit, a printed circuit board (PCB), a hard disk drive(HDD), and a radio transceiver.
 32. The method of claim 10, wherein thebattery comprises: a set of layers comprising a cathode with an activecoating, a separator, and an anode with an active coating; and a pouchenclosing the layers, wherein the pouch is flexible.
 33. The method ofclaim 32, wherein the pouch comprises: a layer of aluminum; and a layerof propylene.
 34. The method of claim 33, wherein the graphene layer isdisposed over the layer of polypropylene.
 35. The method of claim 32,wherein the layers are wound to create a jelly roll.
 36. The method ofclaim 30, wherein the battery comprises: a cathode current collector; acathode active material; a solid electrolyte; an anode active material;and an anode current collector.
 37. The method of claim 36, wherein thesolid electrolyte comprises lithium phosphorous oxynitride (LiPON). 38.The method of claim 30, wherein providing thermal contact between theone or more of the components and the graphene layer involves: furtherdisposing the graphene layer over a surface of the one or more of thecomponents.